Unlock The Secrets Of Life By Committee Written By Corey Ann Haydu Shared As Physical Edition

Taken from the "Final Thoughts" portion of my review:

Corey Ann Haydus Life by Committee is one of my favorite books Ive read so far this year.
Its addictive, wellwritten and the way in which it constructs and deconstructs these characters just drives home the fact that PEOPLE and interactions are complex and life is messy.
There are a lot of really thoughtprovoking themes that kept me up late at night that are woven together brilliantly with the pageturning plot that never became predictable.
Highly recommend!

For my full review check out the sitelink blog sitelink

,Clouds because I'm feeling generous,


I don't even know why I tried with this one, I really don't. Everything is just everywhere and I had no clue what was going on, And I actually tried to like this one, reading until the very last page despite my many groans and screams of anger and frustration and head banging and almost throwing my EReader at the fucking wall.


The whole concept of Life by Committee is stupid, The whole community is insane, the rules aren't explained well and the assignments are so juvenile and stupid, They aren't realistic nor do they support 'living life to the fullest', The characters suck, Joe is as interesting as a fucking toaster, Moreover, the romance is complete shit, Nothing about it explained. They're just fucking together. What is this, Kindergarten where people bump into each other and are like, "We're dating now, "

On top of this, the ending is dumb and pretty plain and kindergarten like,

However, the writing is all right, There's nothing completely horrendous about it,

Life by Committee is not by any means a good, fun, enjoyable read, If anything, it's dull, frustrating, and childish,  Don't read this book. It's boring and nothing explained,
I really loved this book, and it wasn't at all what I was expecting,

From the cover which actually is very fitting with the story in the end, I was expecting a fun, light contemporary about a girl who joins a mysterious club that makes her do crazy and daring things.
But in my reading, the life by committee aspect became almost incidental and more of a metaphor, From a quick perusal of Goodreads reviews it seems that some people didn't connect with Tabitha, but I loved her, And what I connected with most was the way Haydu portrayed a key element of my high school experiencethe sense that your identity within the ecosystem of high school has been carved out for you and that it's not something that can be changed, the way that this time of your life that's supposed to be all about exploration is actually a time when almost everyone you know wants you to stay the same, and the way that that feeling can drive you to do things to almost "test" if they're really youeven if those things are horrible or seemingly out of character.


I'm now looking forward to reading her other books, Secret: I kissed someone else's boyfriend,
Assignment: Do it again,

Wow. I honestly did not expect this book to be so amazing, I have to admit, the book did start off a bit shakily the initial chapters were basically just Tabitha pining over Joe, a classmate who she communicates with frequently online and who she apparently loves, despite his having a girlfriend.
This initial drama was a bit much, to be honest, But then she found the Life by Committee website and she began testing her boundaries, and woooow, I was hooked.

Joe was a freaking douchebag, Seriously, the entire book, I had no idea why Tabitha "loved" him, He kept making these stupid excuses about why he wouldn't break up with his girlfriend, yet continued to string Tabitha on, Such excuses included: "it's complicated", "you know I can't leave her, she's fragile", "we'll talk about it later" and other such no nos, NOT ON, MATE. NOT ON.

You know who else was freaking annoying Tabitha's former friend Jemma, OH MY GOD. GTFO GIRL. She was so selfrighteous and so bitchy and ugh, Every time there was an interaction between her and Tab, I couldn't help but feel angry, Bit of background: Jemma tells Tab that she doesn't want to hang out with her because Tab is "a bit of a slut", Seriously, all that Tab did was gain some curves and get a bit more interested in guys, It was nowhere near "slutty" behaviour, STOP WITH THE PERSECUTION, JEMMA, MY GOD.

Well, we should move on from the shitty characters and talk about Life by Committee, Which is this website where you have to tell people a secret to be able to remain a member of the site and the moderator, who goes by the name of Zed, will set "assignments" to do with your secret.
Holy crap, half of the assignments were ridiculous, Things I would literally never ever do, I won't spoil the surprise of what they were well, there's obviously the "do it again" one from above, but I won't spoil the others but seriously.
Never. I really loved seeing how Tabitha didn't immediately jump into the tasks she deliberated, She felt conflicted. She was entirely realistic.

The ending did tie things up nicely, but my god, it was cheesy, Basically, think Mean Girls. And sunshine and rainbows and everyone being happy, But you know what I didn't really care, So it was cliched. So it was super cheesy, What's more important was that it was cheesy and cliched in a way that was supremely satisfying, Which probably doesn't make sense, So ignore this paragraph and basically know that the ending was awesome, Kthxbye.

Secret: I loved this book
Assignment: Push this book on anyone and everyone, EVERYONE.



Ratings
Overall:/
Plot:,/
Writing:/
Characters:/
Cover:/Wow, that was my first thought after finishing this book, I read an awesome review kicking myself for not remembering which one for this book and seeing it was about cheating kinda made me want to move along to another review bit something told me to read it.
Needless to say, I ended up buying it that day and finished it pretty quickly,
Life by Committee is one of the best books I've read this year, it didn't involve anything paranormal or fantasy, It's about a girl who does make some not so great decisions, but ultimately just wants her life to be somewhat normal, I hate how alone she is, her parents are there but they have their own stuff going on, She's kinda pushed off to the side because everyone thinks she is so independent, I think that has a lot to do with some of her terrible choices, I believe Tabitha could easily be someone that I could relate to and I love her method of reading, It's called active reading and you make notes in the margins, and write down how something made you feel, Questions you want to ask, Only problem with it is my being OCD about writing in my books, . .
Her one friend that she had throughout mostly the book was awesome and didn't pull any punches, But she was also there to listen and be there, Her previous friends, well, I have nothing nice to say about them, How they treated Tabitha and why, just unreal to me,
To me, cheating is wrong on so many levels, and I know a lot agree and it may be the reason to not read this.
But it is so much more than that, It's about someone coming into their own, finding their path, and obviously making mistakes along the way, I love this book, it's a beautiful story and I can't wait to check out more from this author, Originally Posted on: sitelinkConfessions of an Opinionated Book Geek


Tabitha has secrets, Big and small secrets. The one that occupies her mind the most is the fact that she is having a secret relationship, He tells her all of his secrets, tells her he wants her and kisses her, But, its all behind closed doors, because, Tabitha is the other girl in his life,

There are several things about this book that I enjoyed, The first one is the reason that you should read this book Tabitha, the main character, Tabitha is not a good girl, but shes not a bad girl, either, She is feisty, self conscious, lonely, nervous around boys, and brave, She makes really stupid mistakes, puts her trust in the wrong people and lets her world spiral out of control, Basically, Tabitha is just a girl trying to figure it out, Thats a great distinction in a genre filled with goodie two shoes and sacrificial lambs,

This book deals with the problem of slut shaming and the manic pixie dream girl, brilliantly, Corey Ann Haydu flips both of those tropes on its head, Tabitha is slut shamed and not for reasons you might think, No one knows about Joe, No one knows anything about Tabitha with any boys, because theres nothing to know and yet, the school names her “slut, ” Why Because nature had the nerve to give this girl curves, Oh, and when she filled into her curves, Tabitha began to dress herself accordingly, Nothing too dramatic, because she shops at the GAP for gods sake!

Still, there are rumors, shes an outcast and everyone looks down at her.
Its all very trite, which is good, because slut shaming is trite, Tabitha is the only girl in literature, that I can think of, who gets less popular when she gets hot, Its usually the other way around and I really loved that this author gave us a new perspective and a new twist on the

same old story.


LIFE BY COMMITTEE is a very interesting concept, Not only, because of the LBC itself, but because Tabitha is the other POV in stories like this, For example, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in this novel is actually Joes girlfriend, In another novel, Tabitha would be the short skirt wearing blonde girl who bats her baby blues at Joe and steals him away from the perfect, beautiful and misunderstood heroine.
In the hands of another author, Tabitha would be the villain, the mistress, the slut, I am very pleased that Ms, Haydu gave us a different perspective,

Then there is LBC, I found the idea of the committee to be very interesting, because its true to life, Tumblr is a perfect example of a website where people find each other, I sincerely, consider many of my followers, etc on tumblr to be my friends, Its obviously not the sort of friendship I have with my friends in normal life, but people on tumblr know a lot about me.
When I am devastated or hurt by someone in my normal life, I turn to my blogs, because there is something empowering about a world where you are known and yet anonymous.


That is what “Life by Committee” gives Tabitha, She is finally able to show people the scars she hides from the world without being vulnerable, Without being shamed. The Committee gives Tabitha assignments, These assignments are meant to empower, They are meant to give these guys and girls the courage to take bold moves, Unfortunately, LBC is sometimes the blind leading the blind and while Tabithas actions are sometimes empowering, other times they are destructive,

The reason this book getsand not a fullis, because I personally could have used another twenty pages, Id like to see the aftermath of Tabithas choices a bit more, Id like to see this new world that she has created for herself and her classmates, Id like to see if her family makes it through the turmoil, I smiled, laughed and cried at the end, so its completely worth it, I am just notsatisfied, because I wanted to see everything wrapped up a bit better,

Honestly, I just highly recommend it, This book is a breath of fresh air,

Recommended for anyone sick of the normal YA tropes and could use something new, Also for fans of books that focus more on coming of age, or growing up and less on romance, Although there is romance in there
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